Freight glossary / Operations and dispatch

What is Routing guide in freight?

A routing guide is the ranked list of carriers a shipper tenders a lane to, in order, until one accepts. The primary carrier gets first refusal at the contracted rate, and each rejection pushes the load further down the list toward more expensive backups and eventually to the spot market. How far down the guide a shipper routinely goes is a better measure of a network's health than the contracted rate is.

Also called: route guide.

Related terms

• Tender rejection
• Tender acceptance
• Contract rate
• Award
• Routing guide depth